Like many stops on El Camino Real, the site is perhaps as much a vicarious experience as a physical experience, but that makes it no less engaging. Today, the Bureau of Land Management owns and operates Fort Craig as a year-round destination for hiking, photography, picnicking and self-guided tours.

Location (35 miles south of Socorro, New Mexico) Today, Fort Craig is a lonely desert outpost whose sun-bleached ruins stand like watchmen of the memory of the fort’s 30 years defending the New Mexico Territory and protecting wayfarers on El Camino Real, known then as the Chihuahua Trail. Army garrison on the middle Rio Grande route of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.įor a short time during the early months of 1862, nearly 4,000 troops lived, worked and socialized at the sprawling stone-and-adobe complex set against the rugged outlines of the San Mateo and Magdalena Mountains. The gritty crunch of footsteps on gravel, a dull desert buzz and the gentle flap of an American flag inspire a visitor to imagine the ghostly Fort Craig as a fully occupied U.S.